ROM the action figure arrival for 43 dollars

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Left click to enlarge

Well here we go folks my figure just arrived in the mail. Yep, I just decided to say fuck it and hit that "Buy Now" button on ebay when I saw it for only $43 with free shipping. That was by far the cheapest deal I had come across after having looked around for the past couple weeks. I didn't really see much point in waiting another two weeks or a month on the chance it turns up by another seller for a few bucks less I just wanted to see what the figure is like beyond photos on the internet sooner then later. Plus the seller I bought it from very quickly answered my questions before I committed to the purchase which pretty much was the final selling point, customer service really can go a long way with prospective buyers. As for the dealer you might be interested to know according to him he purchased two of the Hasbro sets for the express purpose of breaking them apart and selling off the individual pieces. So now that I have it I'm pretty happy with it despite what ever imperfections it might have. Shit, I don't understand why there aren't any better photos of this thing on the internet it's virtually as articulate as a Micronauts or G.I.Joe figure. As an over all product for a ROM fan it is still profoundly more satisfying then the the poorly handled ROM related continuity from marvel in the past 17 years and more recently that horrible mighty mugg doll and ofcourse IDW's Rom in name only series. Coolest ROM spaceknight merchandise I've gotten since my T-shirt from Redbubble a while back . . .
http://romspaceknightart.blogspot.com/2014/09/gods-of-galador-my-new-rom-t-shirt-fits.html

Any of you out there watch The Defender's first season yet? I went through the whole season last Sunday and damn I have to say it was pretty good. I know the whole independent heroes becoming reluctant allies thing in the Marvel Universe might be a bit of a cliche at this point but it's still fun as hell to watch if it's written well as was the case also for The Avengers. The chemistry between the characters is great and the quips gave me more then a few good laughs. The other strong selling point is that the series seems to have found a really good balance between the original source material and the NetFlix reinterpretations of the characters and that includes Elektra. And it some ways that especially goes for the Misty Knight (SO HOT!) character you'll be like "holly shit" when you see what happens to her in the final episode. The only little bit of a let down I had was that I was hoping to get a Punisher appearance some where in the season even if it had just been as part of a cliff hangar at the end of the final episode. Can't imagine him not showing up at some point in the following season or seasons of The Defenders.

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I thought this might be a good time to share this from The Fear It's Self series a few years or so ago. The dire wraith appearance in this story line never was explained or other wise made any sense but this was kind of a cool moment with Luke Cage.

ROM vs ROM in The SD Comic Con Universe

So I feel like it's time for me to weigh in on this. Have you noticed how many of this loose ROM SDCC figures which are originally part of a Hasbro set have turned up on ebay already!? The price range seems to be between 50 to 60 dollars. Makes you really wonder where the Hell these people are finding these things but I'm sure the answer to that is multifaceted. Now as for the figure it's self I'm not sure why, but I'm glad it fundamentally is based on the original ROM spaceknight design as opposed to IDW's version which I really hate as you all well know.
For some old school ROM fans the fingers alone are gonna be a deal breaker but I've never really minded the concept of an updated version of ROM having fingers so that's not much of a problem for me. I do wish however that it twisted or other wise moved at the waist which it does not appear to do upon close inspection of larger resolution photos on the internet. But still, what a massive improvement on all accounts over that stupid ass hero mighty mugg whatever bullshit from the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con. That thing was garbage and it was sad to see some ROM fans out there be in denial about it just like some Star Wars fans when The Phantom Menace came out. So at least now there's actually some none comic book ROM merchandise worth buying out there....for the right price that is. And that might take some patience and time. Trivago might be able to help you find the right hotel for the best price but when it comes to a loose SDCC ROM figure you're on your own.

Side walk chalk drawing at Calicraft Brewing Company Walnut Creek 

August 7 update: Just as an after thought I thought I'd add some cool images of public art I've spotted in The San Francisco Bay Area in recent days, enjoy.

Public art on city utility station, Hayward

By Preston Asevedo

Aug 11th update: A bit more of a thorough job of inking would have gone a long way to giving this scene a bit more depth but this is other wise some pretty solid fan art for both ROM and Starshine. Brings back some good memories of the good ol days.